1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the sorting, storing, discharge and collection of refuse from individual homes by use of a specially designed garbage can. The can is used in conjunction with a garbage truck on which is mounted special equipment that is complementary to the can. There are many kinds of refuse containers but this is the only system that makes it possible to store, either unsorted or sorted refuse, and collect the refuse while keeping it sorted, and cause it to be discharged onto a moving refuse collection vehicle.
It is not unusual for a refuse trucks to be used for eight hours per day, six days per week. With existing procedures, these twenty-five ton trucks stop and start between three hundred and one thousand residences each day. There is a significant amount of energy expended in order to accelerate these vehicles and a corresponding amount of energy used by over twenty-five thousand garbage trucks in the United States, to bring these vehicles to a stop. A significant amount of labor is also used in order to accomplish the task of refuse collection. Present procedures are expensive, they consume large amounts of energy, they pollute the atmosphere, they result in injuries to laborers and they are generally unsanitary. There is need for a system that eliminates the need to stop a garbage truck while refuse is being collected and eliminates the necessity to manually handle, lift and dump refuse into a garbage truck.
2. Description of Prior Art
Garbage is typically, put into a small kitchen can and later transferred into a larger garbage can stored outside the house. (Patents of interest are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,905,853 to Strawder (1989) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,910 to Zipper (1988), U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,909 to Leumi (1988) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,159 to Callas (1989). The garbage can is periodically moved to curbside (Patent of interest is U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,467 to Becca) and a refuse collection vehicle, together with its work crew, is brought to each residence. (A patent of interest is U.S. Pat. No, 4,113,214 to Dubois (1977)). The vehicle stops, the can is uncovered, lifted and carried to the truck's hopper and emptied. The garbage can is returned to its original location and recovered, The truck and crew, having completed their assignment, leave. The trucks consume considerable amount of fuel. People doing the work are exposed to noxious odors. They suffer from strain and over exertion and they are often injured, when they inadvertently come in contact with unsanitary materials being collected.
In recent years, efforts have been made to recycle refuse. There are garbage districts that require that different kinds of garbage be segregated from one another. Most companies that collect refuse accomplish at least part of this chore by making extra trips to each home, Some trucks have divided compartments to hold different types of garbage, In general, the procedures outlined are primitive and expensive.
There is need for a system that aids recycling and provides a speedy, efficient and inexpensive method of collecting both sorted and unsorted refuse using a garbage truck. This system greatly increases the speed of refuse collection by eliminating the necessity to stop in order to collect garbage. It also elimates the necessity for human contact with refuse and its odors. The garbage system and its component parts, as presented by the inventor and disclosed in the above-identified patent application, is the first system that provides a comprehensive method that fosters the division of refuse, facilitates recycling, eliminates the need for human contact with refuse and its odors, and significantly reduces the amount of human power and mechanical energy expended to collect refuse. The reduction in energy consumption results from the elimination of the need to start, accelerate, decelerate and stop the garbage truck at each home, from the reduction in time during which the truck's motor is in use and the reduction in the number of trips needed to collect sorted garbage. Another factor that speeds the collection, is the elimination of the necessity to uncover, lift, tip over, return the can to the ground or recover the garbage can. All the foregoing factors reduce fuel consumed and the emmissions given off by the truck during the course of refuse collection thereby protecting the environment against pollution.